Who had better moral victory?

[kingwilly]

Who had better moral victory?

[JoePong]

How the hell did the Bengals have a moral victory??? They lost a game they are expected to win..ON THEIR OWN HOME FIELD! I think you are confused...

[kingwilly]

How the hell did the Bengals have a moral victory??? They lost a game they are expected to win..ON THEIR OWN HOME FIELD! I think you are confused...

No, I am not confused.

It was a moral victory in that they held Denver to two FG for more than 59 minutes, they drove 91 yards and scored when it was on the line, got screwed by a non-call fumble that should have been a TD (or at least ended the game) and only "lost" on the most freak of freak plays.

It hurts and sucks and moral victories don't really count but it was a moral victory by any measure.

Of those I listd, I think the Bengals had the better moral victory.

[kingwilly]

I guess I could have also included Chicago on the poll. Losing at GB on a long bomb with 51 seconds to play after clawing back after your QB throws mutltiple picks hurts.

[Clackwoods]

The fact that the Bills were even in that game is a miracle. They have been written off as last place in that division and this game has to give them a huge morale boost, especially without their starting RB

[BengalszoneBilly]

I went with Buffalo here. I watched both the Bengals and Bills games, and I think the Bills played a better team than did Cincinnati.

[HoosierCat]

There. Are. No. Moral. Victories.

[derekshank]

I can't believe I'm typing these words... but I agree with Pong.

The Bengals were playing a team in complete disarray on their home turf. They were favored, and found a way to lose. Yes, the defense looks much improved - but many of us expected improvement on the defense anyway. The Bengals should have won that game. Fluke or not, they didn't do enough to win. There was no victory in that game, moral or otherwise.

[HoosierCat]

The Bengals were playing a team in complete disarray on their home turf. They were favored, and found a way to lose.

Meh...that strikes me as an overstatement. The Broncos were a mess, but the Bengals, thanks to all the changes on the offense and the lack of Palmer in the preseason, weren't exactly a well-oiled machine. As a result they couldn't find any consistency on offense and left themselves vulnerable to the kind of play we saw at the very end of the game.

I do agree that there's no victory here, moral or otherwise, just confirmation that this team wasn't ready for prime time. Fortunately, they were playing the Broncos, so they suffered a "fluke" loss instead of a blowout.

The question now is, how much does a week's worth of practice before the Denver game, plus the game, plus another week's worth of practice, do to tighten all the various loose bolts on the offense? My guess is that it actually does a fair amount and the O will be markedly better in Green Bay. Whether they are good enough to steal a win there I doubt, but any given Sunday and all that. Plus I'm not impressed by the Packers' week one game...but they'll get better, too.

[derekshank]

The Bengals were playing a team in complete disarray on their home turf. They were favored, and found a way to lose.

Meh...that strikes me as an overstatement. The Broncos were a mess, but the Bengals, thanks to all the changes on the offense and the lack of Palmer in the preseason, weren't exactly a well-oiled machine.

Never said the Bengals were a well oiled machine. All I said is that the Bengals were favored to win. They were.

That said, there aren't a great number of teams the Bengals would have had a better chance at beating. The Lions, the Rams... maybe the Chiefs and Browns. Other than that, the Broncos are one of the few team that had to deal with more change than the Bengals. Add to that the fact that their crappy QB had a hand injury, their #1 WR had been suspended from the team up until the week before, and you get a game the Bengals really should have won.

All of that to say, you have a couple options with this game. You can either say that the Bengals are really bad, and that the fact that they lost in a fluke rather than a more decisive manner was a reasonably good sign, or you say the Bengals are better than they played, and should be ashamed of themselves.

I go for the latter, and don't feel it's much of an overstatement at all.

[skyline]

Titans. They lost to the defending champs, and know they could have won had Bironas not done the impossible and hooked a 37 yarder. A lot of teams will lose to the Steelers this year, and the Titans get to bounce back this week, hopefully, with a win against Houston.

[Ickey44]

There. Are. No. Moral. Victories.

Precisely. A loss is a loss.

[kingwilly]

There. Are. No. Moral. Victories.

Ok, then let's phrase it this way: The team that can most readily find positives from the game with which to build on despite recording a loss.

[Baraka]

There. Are. No. Moral. Victories.

amen. morality does not hoist the lombardi.

[Kazkal]

Those plays happen its Broncos deserved win by amazing play by stoks....Last one I remember was last season? Tory Holt facing I think it was the Seahawks pass was tipped he caught it and ran it in for a TD.

hmmmm couldn't get youtube to work

[Pidge]

Raiders for me. The only team who were absolutely shafted by the refs.

[ArmyBengal]

It's a simple question that is giving something to discuss, I don't see the need to get all worked up about it.

While I agree there are no moral victories, there were in fact some positives to take away from the game against Denver and I think they will continue to build on those positives. Also agree that the Bengals were favored and should have won that game. The Bills, Raiders, and Titans were all expected to lose their games and none of them was favored. That should take the Bengals out of the running from the jump.

The Titans have a good team, so while the Steelers were favored, that game should have been close, so nothing there.

The Raiders could get my vote here, but I went with the Bills.

I have heard many an analyst wonder how the Bills were going to get wins in that division playing against those teams and how they would be lucky to win 5 this year. Of those 5 wins, I HIGHLY doubt anyone would think one of those would come against the Patriots. That being said, they were a kneeldown away from winning that game and should have won had it not been for a bad decision of the return guys part.

The Bills should actually feel good about that loss (if that's possible)... Anyone feel good about the Bengals loss ?? It sickened me even with some positives.

[Pidge]

Interesting points AB. I think that many of us, well certainly myself anyway, were pissed because our O stank the joint up. Hideous, truly bad. Biblically awful and yet we still almost got away with it. Almost - bitter pill to swallow.

[derekshank]

Interesting points AB. I think that many of us, well certainly myself anyway, were pissed because our O stank the joint up. Hideous, truly bad. Biblically awful and yet we still almost got away with it. Almost - bitter pill to swallow.

I think that's the point though. How is it a moral victory that they almost got away with sucking donkey balls? The fact they almost won anyway merely shows the quality of the opponent they were playing. No moral victory here.

But hey, that's just the way I see it.

I also still can't stop laughing about it. It's maybe the strangest feeling I've ever had as a Bengal fan.

[ArmyBengal]

Like I said, when you are favored to win and DON'T, there's no moral victory to be found.

ALL of the other teams mentioned as options were underdogs and there was no suprise in their loss.

Ask yourself, which of those teams pulling out a win would have been the MOST suprising ??

Yeah, I'll go with the Bills that SHOULD have won that game...

[Pidge]

Interesting points AB. I think that many of us, well certainly myself anyway, were pissed because our O stank the joint up. Hideous, truly bad. Biblically awful and yet we still almost got away with it. Almost - bitter pill to swallow.

I think that's the point though. How is it a moral victory that they almost got away with sucking donkey balls? The fact they almost won anyway merely shows the quality of the opponent they were playing. No moral victory here.

But hey, that's just the way I see it.

I also still can't stop laughing about it. It's maybe the strangest feeling I've ever had as a Bengal fan.

Hey, I agree with you Derek. No moral victory here. The team, overall, just didn't do enough to win so they lost. I get why some people, myself included most likely, were a tad shrill right after the game though. I'm still sticking with the Raiders getting hosed. I don't give two shrivelled s**ts what that BS artist Mike Perreira says, the refs completely screwed the Raiders on that TD call.

[jjvolt]

Who had better moral victory?

with all due respect, kingwilly, this is the most ridiculous notion that I've heard for quite sometime.

it's really kind of pathetic.

[jjvolt]

There. Are. No. Moral. Victories.

Ok, then let's phrase it this way: The team that can most readily find positives from the game with which to build on despite recording a loss.

after 20 yrs. of losing I'm DONE with finding positives in losing efforts.

my rose colored glasses came off LONG, LONG ago when it comes to this franchise.

sorry kingwilly but have I told you this is a RIDICULOUS topic?

[kingwilly]

There. Are. No. Moral. Victories.

Ok, then let's phrase it this way: The team that can most readily find positives from the game with which to build on despite recording a loss.

after 20 yrs. of losing I'm DONE with finding positives in losing efforts.

my rose colored glasses came off LONG, LONG ago when it comes to this franchise.

sorry kingwilly but have I told you this is a RIDICULOUS topic?

I agree this may not be the most pleasant way to recover from possibly the stupidest loss in Bengals history, but it is not any more ridiculous than all the general moaning and whinging that goes on here regularly (of which I contribute to as well).

If given a choice, I'd rather have the team lose on a fluke than get whipped like when they opened against SD a few years ago when they were out of shape and were an embarrassment to the NFL.

[ArmyBengal]

I actually like the topic, but it's more from the fact that I removed the Bengals from consideration, which is sad in and of itself.

The Raiders call was actually a good call in my book. There was a really good breakdown of the call on PFT and after looking at the play again, I actually agree with the refs in that he didn't control the ball after hitting the ground and if the ball moves AT ALL, it's not a completion. The ball moved.

Bills win...